From: Steven Arnold <stevena@...>
Date: 2005-11-04T02:37:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Certification

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On Nov 3, 2005, at 12:22 PM, gregarican wrote:

> Someone who takes collegiate courses and earns a degree in computer
> programming should be judged based on such qualifications. Someone who
> hasn't earned a degree in such a field could be judged on sample code
> from their projects they have contributed to. If the sample code is
> owned by a former employer then some other self-maintained portfolio
> could be presented.

I've found it very valuable to give interviewees small programming  
problems right there in the interview.  For example, write a function  
that prints all possible permutations of a string, or that translates  
a string into Pig Latin, etc.  It really can quickly distinguish the  
great programmers from the good programmers from the pretenders.  I  
like to give the interviewee a laptop with the programming language  
installed, and ideally they will quickly produce a working program.   
Second best is slowly produce a working program.  If they're not good  
enough to write something that works, they are probably not good  
enough for my purposes.  Extra points for style, innovative  
approaches and especially efficient algorithms.

If the candidate can't actually write software, they're no good.  So  
you might as well establish that right up front.

steve


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